AVEF2 days ago

ICYMI: TPS Holders Rally to Tell Congress: “Residency Now!”

Thousands Rally in D.C. to Keep Trump from Separating Families and Deporting Hundreds of Thousands of TPS Holders

Tuesday February 12th, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders from across the nation gathered to prove to the Trump administration they will not be intimidated by it’s racist policies, and to urge Congress to pass a permanent solution for TPS holders and their families. Despite Trump’s attempt to strip over 300,000 TPS holders of their legal status and separate them from their families, TPS holders refuse to back down. Tuesday’s events highlight the endless resolve of TPS holders and DACA recipients and their bravery to speak out.

The rally, followed by a march to Capitol Hill, was part of a mass mobilization effort by the TPS Alliance with the support of dozens of immigration groups to demand justice and a permanent legislative solution for TPS holders, DACA recipients, and their families.

Hundreds of immigrants and their families representing more than a dozen countries and several states gathered Tuesday in Washington to demand that permanent residency be made available to thousands of immigrants who came to the United States fleeing war and disaster.

They danced to the beat of drums and the thrum of vuvuzelas, the airy notes of a conch shell and the shake of maracas, hoisting flags and signs into the air as they chanted in English, Spanish, French, Haitian Creole and Nepali.

Through the cold and rain, they sang and marched down Pennsylvania Avenue.

“What do we want?” they called. “Residency!” “When do we want it?” “Now!”

Perez, who came to the United States from El Salvador and was granted TPS 18 years ago, is protected until this upcoming September or — potentially — next March, if legal efforts to prolong protections are successful. Perez said he thinks as many as 60 to 100 Harvard employees are TPS recipients.

The Department of Homeland Security announced in September 2017 that it would end TPS for six of 10 protected countries. Individuals from those countries — El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, and Sudan — make up about 95 percent of TPS holders. More than 400,000 individuals from those countries are TPS holders.

Perez — who is on the Massachusetts TPS Committee, a member of the Harvard TPS Coalition, and a custodian at the Harvard Art Museums — said the march was like “a flame on the road under the water.”

“The rain was not able to shut it down, turn it off,” he said. “These people were on fire.”

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